Kakemono Two Birds on a Flowering Crabapple

At the center are two songbirds. The combination of bird and flower painting is one of the oldest and most popular pictorial themes in Japanese art, known as kachō-ga.

The hanging scroll bears the signature "Satta Sanjin Kakutei" (薩埵山人 鶴汀) with two seals. The five-petalled crabapple (kaidō) blossoms are rendered in delicate white and pale pink and the young leaves glow red, while the birds' plumage was built up in fine, differentiated layers of color, creating an appealing contrast between the plant and animal elements.

The composition is loose and natural, without symmetrical rigor, which lends the image a lively, almost momentary effect. Such kachō-ga depictions were traditionally associated with the seasons and are suitable as a changing decoration for the tokonoma, especially in the months when the crabapple blooms.